Artykuł stanowi próbę oceny skutków wprowadzenia zmian w systemie wyborczym organów jednostek samorządu terytorialnego wynikających z ustawy o zmianie niektórych ustaw w celu zwiększenia udziału obywateli w procesie wybierania, funkcjonowania i kontrolowania niektórych organów publicznych przyjętej w 2018 roku. Autorzy weryfikują hipotezy postawione przed zastosowaniem nowego systemu w praktyce, dotyczące wpływu zmian na proporcjonalność wyborów oraz możliwości uzyskania samodzielnej większości przez jedno ugrupowanie w organach stanowiących na poziomie gminy oraz ryzyka całkowitej dominacji jednego podmiotu w tym organie. Ocenie poddano również wpływ ograniczenia możliwości wykorzystywania biernego prawa wyborczego w wyborach do rad przez osoby kandydujące do organu wykonawczego w gminie.

Bilocation beneficiaries. Conditions and consequences of dual candidacy to different local government units

Dual candidacy to the local executive (the commune head, the mayor, the city president) and higher levels of local legislative (county councils, provincial assemblies) – which we call „bilocation” – was prohibited by the amendments to the Electoral Code adopted in 2018. The scale of this phenomenon nor its consequences have never been subject to systematic analysis before, although it appeared as early as 2002, along with direct elections of mayors. Our paper shows who – and with what success – used this possibility in the previous elections, in particular in 2014. Bilocations turned out to be common, though not dominant practice. Their political ramifications were significant, yet the pattern they form – complex and far from intuitive. Our analysis shows that excluding such a possibility did not remedy existing pathologies but could have contributed to the negative phenomena visible in the 2018 elections.

Dual Tenure of Executive in Municipalities – Restriction of Civil Rights or Reduction of Pathological Phenomena?

The phenomenon of multiterm mayors has become widespread in Poland, especially after introducing the direct election of the executive in municipalities in 2002. The direct election has given the mayors the dominant position in local politics. The way to limit it has seemed to be the limitation of number of terms in office of the municipal executive bodies to two. In the presented paper the arguments of opponents and supporters of this solution were analyzed. The analysis was made from the perspective of two levels: institutional- legal and socio-political. The aim of the analysis is to show the positives and negatives of the implemented change and the projected effects. The legal basis, its compliance with the constitution and the implications for the active and passive suffrage were analyzed. Also the results for local political systems and for local communities were examined, and it was confronted with the issue of political culture.